Springfield bars and clubs would close at 1 a.m. under new proposal by Mayor Domenic Sarno

File photo | The RepublicanSpringfield Mayor Domenic Sarno is proposing a 1 a.m. closing time for all bars and clubs in the city, less than a month after a 1 a.m. curfew on entertainment in such establishments went into effect.

SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Domenic J. Sarno is asking the city License Commission to consider a new 1 a.m. closing hour for local bars and clubs, believing the earlier hour would enhance public safety.

The idea drew immediate criticism from local lawyer Thomas J. Rooke, saying it would be the “final nail in the coffin” of local businesses.

The curfew, which took effect April 7, allows bars to remain open until 2 a.m., the current closing hour, but requires them to turn off music, television sets and other forms of entertainment by 1 a.m., unless they obtain a “special late night entertainment permit.” Ten restaurant-bars successfully applied for the late night permits.

Sarno said he is “supportive of a 1 a.m. closure,” rather than the existing 2 a.m. closing time. The change, however, will require a public hearing and would need approval from the five-member License Commission, which is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council.

“I am in favor of an earlier closing time as it brings continued continuity to closing time and more importantly better overall public safety to visitors, our neighborhood residents and to the business community ...,” Sarno said in a prepared statement.

The earlier time “will result into a much more thriving positive business and economic development climate,” Sarno said.

Rooke sharply disagreed.

Thomas Rooke

“Finally this mayor is putting the final nail into the coffin of the business community of Springfield,” Rooke said.

“And I ask the mayor: are you turning your back on the business men and women of Springfield who have supported this city the last 25 years?,” Rooke said, naming some long-existing bars and clubs.

“This is the second- or third-largest city in the commonwealth, not a town with a dirt road located in the hilltowns of the Berkshires,” Rooke said.

Sarno has stated that he is cracking down on late night trouble and violence in Springfield. Much of the violence occurs in the early morning hours when bars are closing, he said. Opponents of the curfew have stated the earlier hour will not reduce crime. Police statistics since the curfew went into effect have not been released.

Rooke said the mayor should restrict the hours of troublesome bars, “not the vast majority of legitimate, hard-working business men and women who have a lot of employees” and would lose valuable hours of business.

Those owners employ a lot of city residents, pay taxes, and many pay for added police details, Rooke said. In addition, they pay an annual fee of $2,800 for their liquor license, “more than twice the amount of any other city” in the state, he said.

Sarno said he has appealed to the License Commission “for this natural progress into discussing and exploring better business practices that have been working in Northampton and other areas.”

In Northampton, the bars and clubs have a 1 a.m. closing time, unless the later hour is approved by that city’s License Commission. Twenty bars and restaurants have permission for a 2 a.m. closing hour in Northampton.

License Commission Chairman Peter L. Sygnator said the commission has not yet addressed the issue of a general rollback in the closing time to 1 a.m. The commission would await a specific proposal for discussion at a future meeting, he said.

Peter Sygnator

“The commission recognizes the mayor’s efforts to quell some of the 2 a.m. closing time disturbances in the Entertainment District and the commission has independently explored methods we can use to assist the mayor in his goal,” Sygnator said.

The 1 a.m. curfew on entertainment, in effect for two weeks, has triggered objections from bar owners, and legal action.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Bertha D. Josephson, in a ruling this week, has denied a preliminary injunction sought by two downtown bars seeking to be excluded from a new 1 a.m. curfew.

Glo Lounge and Kush, both on Worthington Street, were among many bars not granted late night entertainment permits two weeks ago by Sarno. The bars, represented by lawyer Daniel D. Kelly, sought preliminary injunctions to keep their entertainment going past 1 a.m.

Josephson denied the request, saying the owners “failed to establish a likelihood of success on the merits” of their case and proof of harm needed to justify the immediate injunctive relief.

Paul V. Ramesh, who owns the bars, has also filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, in objecting to the entertainment curfew. Ramesh said he is Puerto Rican and that most of his bar patrons are also minorities.

Ramesh said he provided evidence that more than 40 percent of the income from his bars is derived from food sales, and thus should have been granted an exemption from the 1 a.m. curfew. City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula said the assertion of significant food sales was not credible.